TANGRAMS

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TANGRAMS

• JoAnn Campanaro

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HISTORY

• Ancient Chinese puzzles
• Begins with a square
• Each piece is called a tan
• All seven pieces must be used
• They must touch, but not overlap

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LEGEND

• A Chinese man Tans greatest possession was fine
  ceramic tile.
• He dropped tile on the way to show emperor and it
  broke in 7 geometric shapes.
• Spent the rest of his life trying to put it back
  together again.
• He was never successful, but did succeed in
  creating many designs.

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• Tan enjoyed creating designs.
• Later called tangrams.
• Perhaps the oldest and most enduring geometric
  puzzles.

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USE

• Used in storytelling
• Storyteller arranges the tans to show shape of a
  character
• Pieces are rearranged to represent new characters
  or elements

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Identify the shape of each Tangram piece

• 2 Large Triangles
• 1 Medium Triangle
• 2 Small Triangles
• 1 Square
• 1 Parallelogram

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Can you make the square?
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Grandfather Tangs Story

• Story of grandfather and child playing a game
  with tangrams.

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How many character puzzles can you make?
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Follow up activity

• http//homepage.mac.com/efithian/Geometry/Activity
  -01.html